We continue with the subject of,

The Millennium and the End of Sin

The New Earth? And who Adventist believe will dwell there

Who will live on the New Earth?

According to our Adventist friends:

“The “saints” will live with God in the New Earth. In Isaiah 35:9-10 we are told, “But only the redeemed will walk there, and those who the Lord has rescued will return.”

In order to properly interpret this statement from Isaiah prophecy we have chosen to thoroughly examine the context from whence it was taken beginning back at Chapter 34. We continue with Verse 6.

VERSE 6 “The sword of the Lord is filled with blood, it is made overflowing with fatness, With the blood of lambs and goats, With the fat of the kidneys of rams. For the Lord has a sacrifice in Bozrah, And a great slaughter in the land of Edom.”

God’s sword will drip with blood and fat. Bozrah (the Roman Catholic Church) is the capital of Edom (Christendom, mystic Babylon). The sword will be filled with the blood of “lambs” (tribulation saints) and “goats” (tares).

Not that God will take the lives of any personally, but he will permit this to take place even as he permits the “feet of him”, the last living members of the body of Christ this side of the Vail to be taken (killed) by Jezebel (the professing church) working through Ahab (the government) to perform the deed. Or as it is expressed in Revelation by the “three unclean spirits”, the beast (Papacy), the false prophet (Protestantism, the image of the beast having been given life), and the dragon (the civil authority or government).

After the government has gotten rid of the last of the feet members at the bequest of the nominal church (supposedly for the good of all), the nominal church will imagine for a time that they have ridden themselves of all dissension, but then the last of the great company class, the “tribulation saints” those with understanding, who having returned from the market place to get the necessary oil (the spirit of the Lord), for which they were lacking (Matt 25:9), will speak out.

With the full realization that the “door is shut”, and that the Church is complete, the last members of the body of Christ having passed beyond the vail and that they themselves have lost their opportunity of being a part of that elect company these will now boldly proclaim this fact to the world and that those who have been proclaiming themselves to be the true church are false and are liars.

This of course will draw the ire of the nominal church once again who will precede to do to these as they did to the feet members. Unfortunately, in this last act of hatred and malice against the Lord’s true people Satan will be made manifest in the professing church to all the world. The people will then turn their anger upon the great system of professed Christianity (Babylon) itself, which of course is comprised primarily of “goats”, i.e., “tares”.

“Render to her just as she rendered, and repay her double according to her works; in the cup which she has mixed, mix double for her.” (Rev 18:6)

The beast (Papacy) and the false prophet (Protestantism) “will be utterly burned with fire” descriptive of the destructive calamities which will befall them, in the end they will be “cast alive into the lake of fire”, i.e., destroyed. “…Babylon shall be thrown down, and shall not be found anymore.” (Rev 18:8; Rev 19:20)

The expression “fat of the kidneys of rams” is sarcastic language. God will prepare a great sacrifice or feast for His enemies. Hence “fat” is used unfavorably here. In the favorable sense, “fat” would indicate zeal.

“Rams” (male sheep) would be leaders. In other words, the great leaders of Christendom (both civil and religious) will share in the blood bath. When the nominal system crashes, the anarchists’ masses will make the leaders their targets. Some of the people will even “labor in the very fire” of anarchy, trying to hold up the structure, but the system will fall like a bag of wind (Hab. 2:13).

VERSE 7 “The wild oxen shall come down with them, And the young bulls with the mighty bulls; Their land shall be soaked with blood, and their dust saturated with fatness.”

Spiritually speaking, the animals represent various categories of hierarchical leadership in the professed or ecclesiastical heavens. All will share a similar fate. The “land” (Christendom, the false kingdom of Christ) will be soaked with blood (violence). Suggestions follow as to what the animals represent:

Rams = priests. Bullocks = bishops. Bulls = archbishops. Wild Oxen = popes, those on top.

This of course could likewise apply just as well to civil leaders, viz. bullocks and bulls, princes and potentates, Wild Oxen, world leaders.

“Their dust [will be] made fat with fatness.” The implication is that good will result from the trouble. One might ask,

“Why is all this slaughter necessary?”

One reason is retribution. During the Inquisition, the banners of Papacy were soaked with blood. Rev 17:5, 6 states that in the harlot was found all the blood of the saints. All the atrocities committed during the Dark Ages at the hands of Papacy are to be visited upon that institution. Those who are still in that system share the responsibility, for they close their eyes and ears when they hear reports of the dark past. Instead, they should have investigated the matter honestly, and finding truth in the reports, they should leave the system—and thus be absolved of the responsibility. Association with an institution does incur responsibility.

“And I heard another voice from heaven saying, “Come out of her, my people, lest you share in her sins, and lest you receive of her plagues.” (Rev 18:4)

But alas many like Lots wife “looking back” are reluctant to leave, some out of fear of what their friends, family and fellow parishioners might say and think of them and others out of the fear that in leaving what they perceive to be God’s established institutions for religious learning that they will lose their salvation. Fear is a mental condition, which is begotten of uncertainty. And so, it is written, “… their fear toward Me is taught by the commandment of men.” (Isa 29:13)

“The fear of man brings a snare: but he who puts his trust in the LORD (his word, the truth) shall be safe.” (Prov 29:25) 

So, which is the one who truly “trust in the LORD”, the one like Lot’s wife who is fearful of coming out or the one who does as the LORD says and leaves these man-made institutions? Which one is safe?   

The implication is that the land will be fertilized, as it were, with the blood that soaks into it and with “fatness”; “their soil [will be] made rich with fat” (RSV).

How?

When the people come forth from the grave in the Kingdom, seeing what has been done in the past will help bring the former leaders to repentance. That period of shame-facedness and humility will be good “soil” for their recovery. Their former attitude of superiority toward their fellow man must be broken in order for them to be receptive to the seeds of truth. Seeds that fall on good soil (hearts) in the Kingdom will be productive and bring forth good fruitage. The hard experience is necessary to effect a thorough reform. The principle is that a surgeon must wound in order to heal.

We continue with Verse 8 in our next post.